In somewhat of an omen, one of the year’s earliest big releases that featured an all-star cast and aimed for major commercial appeal flopped at the box office amid some major critical and viewer jeers. Matthew Vaughn’s attempt at creating a new franchise with the twisty-turny action-comedy Argylle did not land in the slightest, despite it seeming like such a no-brainer hit that the director had already been coming up with ideas for sequels. Those who have seen the movie may even remember a post-credits scene that is intended to lead into the next chapter.
Vaughn has now recently opened up to Empire about being blindsided by the negative reactions to his film. When asked if it was disappointing to see such a reception, Vaughn naturally replied, “F*ck yeah.” The X-Men: First Class director went on to explain, “My guard came down on Argylle. We had done test screenings that had gone fantastically well. The premiere was a really fun night, and it was like going back to the Snatch days where there was such excitement. And I started drinking the Kool-Aid.” Although he had made similarly outlandish and madcap films like Kick-Ass and the Kingsman movies, Vaughn somewhat switched up his tone to make Argylle more of a light-hearted fare, which is why the reception was so shocking for him.
It’s a fun, feel-good movie, or I thought it was a fun, feel-good movie. We didn’t make Citizen Kane, but f*cking hell, then the reviews came out and I’m like, ‘Wait, what have I done to offend these people?’ They were vitriolic. I’m not saying the movie’s perfect by any means, but I didn’t think it was offensive. That took me by surprise.”
When the film was released and it underperformed, Vaughn would take it upon himself to re-evaluate what might have gone wrong. He expounded, “I even went round to cinemas because I thought, ‘Maybe I’ve lost the plot now.’ It did rattle me. I’m genuinely scratching my head about that, because you can’t ignore it. It wasn’t like [just] a few bad reviews.” When it came time for acceptance, Vaughn came away with the philosophy, “It is what it is. You learn from these things.” Although, there may still be a light at the end of the tunnel, “We’re doing very well on streaming. People are liking it. Nothing would make me happier than making another one. I’m getting texts saying, ‘Wow, those reviews were f*cking harsh!’ The more we can get people to watch Argylle, the more chance we make another one. I’d love to make another one, we’ve got it planned.”
What do you think the chances of another Argylle movie being made are? Let us know in the comments.
The 2000s was an interesting time for cinema. Let’s face it: it was an interesting time in general. In the realm of horror, the beginning of the aughts saw an influx of remakes of J-Horror – some bad, some pretty decent. However, with the post-9/11 cultural climate heightening anxieties and desensitization to violence due to real-world events, another genre emerged, tapping into the darker side of human nature. First coined by David Edelstein in a 2006 article in New York magazine, “torture porn” took the roots of exploitation and splatter films of the 70s and 80s and reintroduced the mainstream audiences to a new level of explicit brutality. Films like Saw, Hostel, The Devil’s Rejects, and the New Extremity of French Horror were raw and unapologetic looks at human depravity. It was everywhere. I mean, there was a time when you couldn’t go more than a year without having a Saw film. While the popularity of this subgenre began to overstay its welcome by the late 2000s and being replaced with found footage, one film came onto the scene that was seemingly overlooked. When The Collector was released in 2009, audiences had already moved on from overly violent films. Hell, I was one of them. Although it had poor reviews and a low box-office take, the movie eventually got a reappraisal and is deemed a cult classic with its smart take with a blend of home invasion films and torture porn. While it didn’t make blockbuster numbers, it did exceed its 3-million-dollar budget, which led filmmaker Marcus Dunstan to continue on with his story. Today’s film not only had three times the budget of The Collector, it also has one of the craziest kill scenes for a wide-release movie. Watch out for random boxes and be wary of those blades in the underground rave as we discover what happened with The Collection (watch it HERE).
In 2005, Marcus Dunstan and co-scribe Patrick Melton won season 3 of Project Greenlight with their screenplay Feast. After an executive discovered the writers and was impressed with one of their unproduced screenplays, they were hired to write Saw IV and the following sequels up to Saw 3D. That unproduced screenplay, The Midnight Man, was originally shopped around as a prequel to Saw, but after the idea was dismissed, it was reworked into The Collector. That film tells the story of a man named Arkin, who is hired by a family to fix their new home. While owing a large sum of money to some loan sharks, Arkin plans to break into the family’s home to steal a valuable ruby. However, when he arrives, he finds a sadistic maniac has imprisoned the husband and wife and has set up traps all over the house.
The film was originally set up by Dimension Films, but after the cash-strapped studio didn’t have the funds to release the film, LD Entertainment bought the rights and gave it a brief theatrical run where it made 10.2 million on its 3 million budget. While not a complete success compared to the likes of heavy hitters like Saw, it did well enough but really found its audience on DVD. While in the middle of working on Saw 3D, producer Mickey Lidell asked Dunstan and Melton to follow up their movie with triple the budget. They agreed and went into the project with the film Aliens as their inspiration, making it bigger and more action-oriented. Dunstan’s intention for this sequel was to make a film that would work even for the people who didn’t see the first one.
Returning to the sequel is Josh Stewart as Arkin, whose character was last seen taken by the titular Collector. Accompanying Stewart are Emma Fitzpatrick, Lee Tergesen, and Christopher McDonald. The Collector was Josh Stewart’s first starring role, and he has since appeared in a few of Christopher Nolan’s films, Insidious: The Lost Key, and several episodes of Criminal Minds. Emma Fitzpatrick first hit the big screen with The Social Network, and while her filmography is slim on the horror front, she appeared in the 2015 movie Bloodsucking Bastards along with Pedro Pascal. Tergesen has been around for quite a while, dating all the way back to Point Break in 1991. Although he is best known for his role as Tobias Beecher in Oz, he also appeared in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and an episode of Masters of Horror directed by Tom Holland. The biggest name in this movie is Christopher McDonald. McDonald is known for more comedic roles; seeing him in a horror movie was surprising. While he was in The Faculty, I will always attribute him to Shooter McGavin.
The movie opens with news reports of a manhunt for a serial killer known as The Collector, who kills his victims using a series of elaborate traps and keeps the ones he wants as trophies. Meanwhile, teenage Elena is invited out to an underground rave. After witnessing her boyfriend there with another girl, she storms off into another room, where she finds a mysterious red trunk. She opens it to find a severely injured Arkin from the previous movie. Opening this box then sets off a deadly trap with blades that mow down the entire group of party-goers on the dance floor. Amid the bloodbath, Arkin manages to escape while The Collector takes Elena. At the hospital, Arkin is taken into police custody and placed under constant watch due to his criminal background. He is soon approached by Lucello, the trusted aide of Elena’s wealthy father, Mr. Peters. Lucello has assembled a team of mercenaries to track down the Collector and save Elena before it’s too late. He promises Arkin that helping them locate the Collector’s lair will clear his criminal record. Previously, while being held captive by the Collector, Arkin had memorized their route to the hideout by marking his arm with cuts. Using these markings, he guides the mercenary team to the Collector’s lair, an abandoned hotel in a remote area. The warehouse is a testament to the Collector’s twisted mind, filled with elaborate traps designed to maim and kill intruders. Every corner of the facility is a potential death trap, showcasing the Collector’s sadistic ingenuity.
As the team ventures deeper into the lair, they encounter various grotesque scenes and captured victims, each suffering from the Collector’s cruel experiments. The atmosphere is tense and oppressive, and danger lurks behind every door and around every corner. The mercenaries, despite their training and weaponry, find themselves outmatched by the Collector’s home-field advantage and his relentless pursuit to maintain control over his domain.
One of the standout features of The Collection is its commitment to practical effects. The special effects team, led by coordinator David Fletcher, is meticulously crafted to create a visceral and immersive experience; Fletcher’s resume is beyond extensive and goes all the way back to The Running Man in 1987. The traps are ingeniously designed, combining practical effects with minimal CGI to maintain a realistic and gritty feel. This approach enhances the film’s impact, making the scenes of violence and horror more tangible and unsettling.
The best moment is the nightclub massacre at the beginning of the film. It is a particularly complex sequence involving numerous extras, stunts, and practical effects to create a chaotic and horrifying scene. The rotating combine rake took a couple of weeks to design. Once the design was finished, it was sent off to be cut by water jets and put together like a massive Erector Set. Although the actual blades were made of rubber, they also had a set of real blades on hand. For this scene alone, production had over fifty gallons of fake blood, which they shot out of air mortars along with fake guts.
Another star of the show is Gary J. Tunnicliffe, the special effects makeup designer. Tunnicliffe has been working with Dunstan since Feast but has been in the game a lot longer than that. My personal favorite is his work as the makeup sculptor on Ginger Snaps. Not only did he design The Collector’s mask, but he meticulously crafted full bodies to be put on display in the trophy room. It’s that kind of work and dedication you can’t achieve with CGI.
The combination of the attention to detail in the abandoned hotel’s construction, the intricacy of the traps, and the realistic gore effects all contributed to the film’s chilling atmosphere. These elements, combined with effective use of lighting and sound, ensured that The Collection stood out as a visually and viscerally impactful entry in the horror genre. The dedication to practical effects not only enhanced the realism of the horror but also paid homage to traditional filmmaking techniques, resulting in a more authentic and engaging experience for the audience.
The Collection was released in November 2012 and received mixed reviews. Critics praised its inventive traps, fast pace, and the continuation of the dark narrative from the first film, but some felt it relied too heavily on gore and shock value. Despite this, the film developed a cult following, particularly among horror enthusiasts who appreciated its blend of action and horror.
Because of the cult success, there was considerable excitement about continuing the story, especially with how The Collection ended. In 2019, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton announced a third film, The Collected, aiming to bring back the key characters, including Josh Stewart and Emma Fitzpatrick. Filming began in September 2019, but production encountered several setbacks. After shooting only a few days, the process was abruptly halted. Details about the reasons for these delays have been sparse, but industry insiders point to a combination of financial difficulties, scheduling conflicts, and creative differences. As months turned into years, fans of the series were left in suspense. Occasional updates from the filmmakers suggested a persistent desire to complete the project, but concrete progress remained elusive. The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic further complicated efforts to resume production, leading to extended delays and uncertainty about the film’s future. As of now, The Collected remains unfinished. Despite the enthusiasm from the fanbase and the commitment of the creative team, the obstacles to completing the film have proven substantial. Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton have expressed their hope to bring the project to fruition eventually, but no definitive timeline has been provided.
Until that day comes, we at least have two solid films in this series. If you have only seen the first movie or completely skipped it like I originally did, it’s a creative little horror movie worth checking out. And, when you’re finished with that, definitely check out The Collection. With Dunstan and Melton’s go-big or-go-home approach to crafting a horror sequel, I feel they have more than achieved.
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
Marvel’s The Fantastic Four has had a difficult time being adapted to say the least. First came a 1994 attempt which was only made so the rights could be held and can only be found on bootleg copies. Then came 2005’s Fantastic Four and its 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, with Fantastic Four arriving nearly a decade later. As it stands, these three have a combined Rotten Tomatoes score of 75%! So, yes, we’re still very hesitant to get our hopes up about next year’s go. And before Paul Walter Hauser was cast, he was just as nervous.
Hauser, whose role in The Fantastic Four has yet to be unveiled, almost turned down a chance to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe solely because of the history of the property on the big screen. “Don’t think that didn’t weigh in as I was deciding whether or not to take the job. That movie has not fully been nailed just yet.”
But Hauser has nothing but confidence in The Fantastic Four, adding of the Phase Six launcher, “But I really do think the combination of the screenplay, and the department heads that are working on the film, and that classy cast of really exciting actors — some of them known for a long time, and some of them having a moment right now — [make me feel that] this movie is special, and it was something I wanted to be a part of.” Although some of The Fantastic Four’s casting has been called into question (sorry, Pedro!), it at least looks far more promising than every single other attempt to put Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing on the screen.
Hauser has been on a casting streak as of late, landing roles in movies like The Naked Gun, as well as numerous real-life stories such as the Chris Farley biopic, a movie about Press Your Luck swindler Michael Larson and hopefully a film about the life and career of wrestling legend Mick Foley.
Does the history of failed Fantastic Four adaptations make you skeptical about the MCU’s forthcoming movie or do those have no weight at all? Let us know if you’ll be checking it out in theaters in the comments section below.
“Hey everyone,” says Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian in a breezy update on Steam, “We come bringing news of Patch 7!” But it’s more than a pile of bug-fixes: the headline here is the forthcoming official release of what they call “an officially sanctioned toolkit” that’ll allow fully supported modding of the 2023…
“Hey everyone,” says Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian in a breezy update on Steam, “We come bringing news of Patch 7!” But it’s more than a pile of bug-fixes: the headline here is the forthcoming official release of what they call “an officially sanctioned toolkit” that’ll allow fully supported modding of the 2023…
The live-action TV series based on the Goosebumps books written by R.L. Stine that was released through the Disney+ and Hulu streaming services last October (read our review HERE) drew inspiration from five of Stine’s Goosebumps stories (Say Cheese and Die!, The Haunted Mask, The Cuckoo Clock of Doom, Go Eat Worms!, and Night of the Living Dummy). More Stine stories will be brought to the screen in Goosebumps season 2 – and over the last couple of months, we’ve heard the names of several actors who will be in the cast of the new episodes. Deadline recently revealed the names of six more, saying they round out the cast. The new additions are Arjun Athalye (Are You Afraid of the Dark?), Eloise Payet (The End of the Party), Christopher Paul Richards (The Kids Are Alright), Kyra Tantao (Zombies 3), Stony Blyden (American Born Chinese), and Sakina Jaffrey (Billions), and the only details that have been shared about their characters are their names. As Deadline reports, “Athalye plays Sameer; Payet is Hannah; Richards plays Matty; Tantao portrays Nicole; Blyden is Trey and Jaffrey portrays Ramona.”
They join previously announced cast members Sam McCarthy (Dead to Me) and Jayden Bartels (Side Hustle) as fraternal twins Devin and Cece, respectively; Elijah Cooper (That Girl Lay Lay) as CJ; Galilea La Salvia (Party Down) as Frankie; Francesca Noel (R#J) as Alex; and Ana Ortiz (Devious Maids) as Jen, “a dedicated police detective who remains rooted in her Brooklyn neighborhood after experiencing a tragic event that involved her friends in adolescence.” Friends‘ David Schwimmer is also in there as Anthony, “a former botany professor and divorced parent of teenage girls who is juggling the responsibilities of overseeing an aging parent while having his kids for the summer.“ The twins Devin and Cece are the children of Schwimmer’s Anthony.
The first season of Goosebumps centered on a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle — while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past. The show is taking the anthology route, so we can expect a second season that has “an entirely new cast and setting based on Stine’s iconic Scholastic book series.” Season 2 will also consist of eight episodes, two shorter than the first season.
Season 2 will pick up when teenage siblings discover a threat within their home, setting off a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery. As they delve into the unknown, the duo find themselves entangled in the story of five teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994.
Rob Letterman, who directed the first Goosebumps movie, created this series with Nick Stoller, and Hilary Winston serves as showrunner on the new season. Stoller is executive producing the show through his company Stoller Global Solutions. Letterman and Winston are also executive producing Goosebumps alongside Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty of Original Film, Conor Welch of Stoller Global Solutions, and Erin O’Malley. The show comes to us from Sony Pictures Television Studios.
Are you a Goosebumps fan? What do you think of the cast that has been assembled for season 2? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
A third film in the Marvel Comics-inspired Venom franchise made its way through production last year, shutting down for several months along the way due to the Screen Actors Guild strike. Now the film, titled Venom: The Last Dance, is aiming for an October 25th theatrical release – and today, Sony Pictures is starting to build the hype by unveiling the first trailer! You can check it out in the embed above.
The first Venom was scripted by Jeff Pinker, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel. Ruben Fleischer directed that film, which made $856 million. But then Fleischer turned his focus to making Zombieland: Double Tap and Uncharted – so Andy Serkis took over as director on Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Which was written by Kelly Marcel, working from a story she crafted with star Tom Hardy. That sequel earned $506 million at the pandemic era global box office. Serkis said he would be glad to return to the helm for a follow-up – but when Venom 3 actually did come up, he opted to focus on other projects instead. So Venom: The Last Dance marks the feature directorial debut of Kelly Marcel. She also wrote the screenplay, based (again) on a story she crafted with Hardy.
Hardy is reprising the role of Eddie Brock / Venom for this sequel, and he is joined in the cast by Juno Temple (Ted Lasso), Clark Backo (Letterkenny), and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). Official details on the new characters have not been revealed – but no, Ejiofor is not playing his Doctor Strange character Baron Mordo, since the Venom films are set in a different universe than the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
There was a rumor that he might be playing Orwell Taylor, the leader of the group known as The Jury. As ComicBookMovie noted, “that group existed solely to take out Venom, with each member of The Jury outfitted in powerful armoured suits and tech based on Tony Stark’s designs. Throw in the fact that they had sonic blasters and flamethrowers, and it’s not hard to imagine the government tasking this clandestine group with taking out an apparent threat like Venom.” Members of The Jury in the comic book source material include Sentry, Bomblast, Firearm, Ramshot, Wysper, and Screech.
What did you think of the first trailer for Venom: The Last Dance? Will you be watching this movie on the big screen in October? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The sixth and final season of the hit Netflix series Cobra Kai, a continuation of the Karate Kid film franchise, is set to wrap up the show’s storylines with fifteen episodes that will be split up into a three part event. Cobra Kai Season 6, Part 1 premieres July 18, 2024. Part 2 premieres November 28, 2024. The Finale Event comes in 2025… But before we see any of these new episodes, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be reminding us all where the story began by giving the 1984 film The Karate Kid a 40th anniversary 4K UHD release with VHS-style packaging and commentary by the creators of the Cobra Kai series! This 4K UHD release will be heading out into the world on June 18th.
Here’s some information from a press release: Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the coming-of-age classic The Karate Kid! From Academy Award-winning director John G. Avildsen (1976, Rocky), there is more to karate than fighting. This is the lesson that Daniel (Ralph Macchio), a San Fernando Valley teenager, is about to learn from a most unexpected teacher: Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita in his Academy Award-nominated performance, Best Supporting Actor, 1984), an elderly handyman who also happens to be a master of the martial arts. His training and these vital lessons will be called into play when an outmatched Daniel faces Johnny (William Zabka), the skilled leader of the Cobra Kai — a vicious gang of karate school bullies — in a no-holds-barred karate tournament for the championship of the Valley.
And here are the details on the new 4K UHD release:
4K ULTRA HD DISC Restored from the original camera negative, presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision English Dolby Atmos + English 5.1 + English Stereo Special Features: ALL-NEW: Commentary with the Creators of Cobra Kai Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg ALL-NEW: Over 30 Minutes of Deleted Scene Dailies – go behind the scenes of this classic favourite like never before with raw footage from a variety of unused scenes! 4 Deleted Scenes Remembering The Karate Kid Featurette Theatrical Trailer
BLU-RAY DISC Feature presented in high definition English 5.1 Special Features: Blu-Pop Pop-Up Track Commentary with Director John G. Avildsen, Writer Robert Mark Kamen and Actors Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita “The Way of The Karate Kid” Multi-Part Making-Of Featurette “Beyond the Form” Featurette “East Meets West: A Composer’s Notebook” “Life of Bonsai” Featurette
Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg have shown a lot of love and respect for The Karate Kid (and its sequels) throughout Cobra Kai, so it should be interesting to hear what they have to say about it in their commentary.
Are you a fan of The Karate Kid, and will you be buying this 4K UHD release? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The Ghostface Killer won’t leave Sidney Prescott alone, and Neve Campbell is showing her gratitude for it. After much hardship of trying to develop the seventh chapter in the Scream franchise, things are finally starting to take shape and one of the biggest elements is the return of the original final girl! Scream 7 has gone through many changes in cast and crew. The studio lost its two former leading ladies after Melissa Barrera faced controversy over a social media post and Jenna Ortega’s schedule prevented her from returning. In addition, the new director, Christopher Landon, left the project, saying it was a “nightmare.”
The original screenwriter who started it all, Kevin Williamson, is now slated to step in to direct, and Campbell was finally approached by the studio for a deal to return. While she previously had salary issues that kept her from participating in the last film, Campbell recently shared her thoughts on how Spyglass Media Group finally complied with her salary wishes for this entry in the series. While attending the return of Reefer Madness: The Musical in Los Angeles, Campbell told People how “those movies have been such a big part of my life and it means so much to me, and I was sad to miss the last one, to not be a part of it.” She continued, “I was really grateful that they came back to me in a respectful way. I think that means a lot to women and to society. I’m grateful to be able to step in into Sidney’s shoes again and tell her story.”
Campbell would also talk about what sets her character apart from other slasher movie characters. She mentions that Sidney Prescott “inspired a lot of people.” Then, she explains, “I meet a lot of fans who say her strength has helped them get through tough times, and it means more than I could ever have imagined to some people.”
The pay discrepancy for the Party of Five actress was a big factor on her absence in Scream VI and her initial absence in Scream 7. She previously talked about the respect she felt when previous negotiations with the studio went down, “I’m really grateful that the studio heard me when I talked about pay discrepancy and when I talked about [Scream VI negotiations] not feeling respectful. When they first approached me [for Scream 7], I thought, ‘I don’t know what respectful looks like to them. We might be in very different places.’ But they started out in a strong place, so that was lovely.”
Over the years, as streaming services have taken over, we have seen a neglect in interest from studios to release even massive films on physical media. That’s not to say new movies aren’t coming out on DVD and Blu-ray – they are, it’s just that it does make us scratch our heads and wonder why masterpieces like Killers of the Flower Moon and Godzilla Minus One haven’t been given that home video push. We could blame Apple for greed on the former, but the release strategy (for lack of a better term) on the kaiju flick is pretty ridiculous. As we learned just a couple of days ago, Godzilla Minus One instead got a Netflix release far ahead of when we can expect it on Region 1 Blu-ray, a direct insult to physical media lovers. So what is going on and where is the support? As Mike Flanagan – who once had a strong relationship with Netflix before jumping to Amazon – puts it: there is none.
As per President of Physical Media, Flanagan remembered that the streaming service would block any attempts for him to get works like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass on home video. (Note: it took a year for his debut miniseries to hit DVD/Blu-ray, while Midnight Mass has yet to make it.) “In the years I worked at Netflix, I tried very hard to get them to release my work on blu-ray & DVD. They refused at every turn. It became clear very fast that their only priority was subs, & that they were actively hostile to the idea of physical media.”
Flanagan added, “This is a very dangerous point of view. While companies like Netflix pride themselves on being disruptors, and have proven that they can affect great change in the industry, they sometimes fail to see the difference between disruption and damage. So much that they can find themselves, intentionally or not, doing enormous harm to the very concept of film preservation.”
One can see why Netflix wouldn’t want to actively work on spitting their movies and TV series onto physical media (even though they would obviously be in on the profits) – after all, that’s the industry they wanted to topple. But with so many mainstream titles not available on DVD/Blu-ray and stores continuing to dwindle their stock, Netflix’s brushing off of one of their then-darling was a huge blow and showed they had a point to make.
What do you make of Mike Flanagan’s take on Netflix? Should every movie/TV show have the chance to be on physical media? Chime in with your thoughts below!
